Page 4 of Connor and the Dragons

Larger Sky did not pet the head.

Larger Sky ran again, and I chased him, and we made, I will admit, a scene. A man sprinting across the royal courtyard with a dragon trotting behind him, nose down, was apparently not a sight that explained itself.

“Stop chasing the poor man,” someone shouted.

The voice cracked across the courtyard like ice splitting, and I knew who it belonged to before I turned, because there was only one creature at this court who could sound like such an asshole. Lord Frost himself. The Queen’s secretary. The most obviously named ice dragon in all the kingdoms.

I skidded to a stop, claws gouging the flagstones.

Stupid Frost. Larger Sky would have figured it out eventually. The same way Original Sized Sky had.

Across the courtyard, past the guards and the ruined flagstones, Larger Sky stopped running. He turned around, chest heaving, and he looked at me, and I looked at him, trying to make my eyes into ‘please unlock me,’ if that was possible.

I dropped into a submissive pose, like a puppy who wanted to play, head down on the ground. Deep in my chest, Vyranthos wanted to vomit. Frost walked briskly across the courtyard, ignoring me, and produced from his sleeve a woven bracelet strung with amber beads, holding it up for inspection.

“I am Frostvael Shimmerlight, secretary to Her Majesty the Queen,” he said to Larger Sky. “There is a procedure for arrivals. Your wrist, please.”

Frostvael Shimmerlight.

His full name was WORSE. It was even funnier than I had realized. I was going to treasure that name for the rest of my existence.

After a few more exchanges, and some rather comical miming, Larger Sky held out his wrist, watching me suspiciously the entire time, and Frost tied the bracelet against his skin.

“There,” Frost said. “Can you understand me now?”

“How? What?”

“Magic,” Frost said. So good with the explanations.

“Magic. Seriously? Who are you? Where am I?” Larger Sky asked.

Frost smiled in a gentle way I hadn’t imagined he was capable of. “This is the high court of Feravael. My name is Frostvael Shimmerlight, Lord Frost. What is yours?”

“Connor,” Larger Sky said. “My name is Connor Liang. Aren’t you worried about the dragon?”

“The dragon is not attempting to harm you. He is attempting to be petted.” Frost said ‘petted’ the way other people said ‘mildew.’ “The one you resemble, the young man called Sky, carries a rare gift. His touch wakes this creature’s human form. In all likelihood the beast hopes you share that gift, since you look so similar.”

He waved me forward without looking at me, the way you wave forward a cart. Know-it-all jackass.

Connor had gone still, and his serious mouth had fallen open.

“Sky,” he said. “My brother. You know him. He’s okay?”

Frost began to answer him, some long, boring series of sentences peppered with words like “envoy” and “mission for the crown.” I could see this was going to take a while, because I knew enough of Sky’s story to know it was a long story, and there were some complex time-dilation logistics to explain.

So I did the only reasonable thing. I walked over, quietly, on my best claws. I lowered my enormous head, and I laid it on the flagstones in front of Connor, close enough to be available and far enough to be polite, and I aimed my eyes up at him, as large and as harmless as I could make them.

And I waited to be touched.

CHAPTER 3: CONNOR

“Sky has been here long enough to fall in love with a troll and leave on a quest, and it’s been one day back in San Jose.”

“That is a fair summary,” Lord Frost said, quiet and calm and so damn handsome it was unsettling.

We were standing in a castle courtyard that looked like something out of a Lord of the Rings movie, except that there was a dragon who was currently lying on the flagstones ten feet away, chin down on the stones, eyes tracking our conversation.

I had questions. I had so many questions that they had stopped forming an orderly line, but every time I thought of asking one, the same thought cut in front of it.